This easy vegetarian mushroom pasta is such a treat! The creamy lemony tomato sauce is a delicious backdrop for the meaty mushrooms. Fried in smoky seasonings and herbs, these mushrooms have an amazing flavor reminiscent of Italian sausage, giving the dish so much texture and flavor.
This is not your average creamy mushroom pasta…
My mission here was to make an easy mushroom pasta that feels a little special. After lots and lots of testing, this is where we have arrived. Let’s break it down:
- We have a simple tomato paste cream sauce with basil and surprising little hit of lemon as our base. It is a strong start!
- The mushrooms are packing quite a punch after being fried up in a blend of delicious spices that bring Italian sausage vibes to our vegetarian plates. Think sage, fennel seeds, garlic powder and smoked paprika – the dream team.
- You have the flexibility to add some extra greens like spinach or kale or arugula (rocket) if you wish.
- This can be a very affordable meal because you don’t need the fancy brands or the expensive mushrooms – feel free to stick to supermarket budget range / Aldi ingredients.
- The whole thing comes together in 30-40 minutes, without too many ingredients, and it is all very simple. Though I can’t lie, a little multi-tasking is required because we need to cook the mushrooms separately from the sauce so we’ve got a few pans at work here. Prep ahead and we’ll do fine!
Top Tips & Ingredient Swaps
- I have used chestnut mushrooms for this recipe, but any mushrooms will work. Portobellos would be a great choice too, a few shiitakes would bring extra umami flavor, oyster mushrooms would add some great texture… you’ll get slightly different results with any of these but it will all be good. Since we are adding lots of flavor to the mushrooms, there is no need to get fancy, even white button mushrooms would be great and would keep this recipe very budget friendly.
- The sauce uses lemon as a little flavor twist, brightening it up perfectly. But in my tests I tried making it with vodka (its starting point is very similar to vodka sauce after all) and again with white wine. While I ultimately preferred lemon, feel free to swap in the boozy options if you want / need to. You’ll add 2 tablespoons of vodka or white wine after caramelizing the tomato paste, at the start of Step 5. You will let it bubble for a few moments until the alcohol smell dies down, and then proceed with the recipe from there.
- You should feel very free to add a handful or two of chopped spinach or kale to this – it fits in perfectly and adds some extra nutrition. Add it alongside the basil.
- No basil? Try parsley.
- Any Italian hard cheese will slot in well here. Parmesan, pecorino (my fave), or a generic Italian hard cheese. Vegetarians, be careful with the DOP Italian cheeses which mostly have animal rennet in them. In the UK, you can get generic “Italian hard cheese” made with vegetarian rennet at most supermarkets and Tesco do a vegetarian pecorino. In the US, you can get locally made parmesans which are often made with vegetarian rennet.
- You can certainly use a different pasta shape here if you wish. I love rigatoni, but another short shape such as conchigle or farfalle, or even a long thick shape such as tagliatelle, should work just fine.
Serving & Side Dish Suggestions
Given that we are juggling multiple pans with this recipe, I definitely don’t recommend making any side dishes requiring simultaneous hands on cooking! Here are some ideas which will slot into the workflow well:
- Something that will bake or roast in the oven and takes around 20 minutes. You can put it in just before you start to cook the mushrooms, and it won’t need any attention from you while you’re busy. My top picks would be frozen garlic bread or roasted broccoli.
- A salad you can make before you start cooking. It will sit out for a while so it needs to be a salad that only uses cold ingredients. Something like this Chickpea Salad with Avocado, Mozzarella & Tomato would be a nice filling option. My Vegetarian Italian Salad would be a perfect match flavor wise, but I would suggest you just add the chickpeas plain and uncooked if you’re pairing it with this pasta. (While the smoky chickpeas are a headline ingredient for the salad, it’s the same spices we cook our mushrooms in for this pasta, so I don’t think we need both at the table!)
More Vegetarian Mushroom Pasta Recipes

Mushroom Rigatoni (Easy, Creamy and Vegetarian!)
Ingredients
- olive oil or butter, for cooking
- 9 oz (250 g) dried rigatoni pasta
- 10.5 oz (300 g) mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1.5 teaspoons dried sage
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ lemon, zest and juice
- ½ bunch fresh basil, chopped
- ½ cup (120 ml) double (heavy) cream
- ½ cup (50 g) pecorino, parmesan or Italian hard cheese, grated
Instructions
- First, cook the mushrooms. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large saute pan and add the mushrooms. Saute, mixing frequently, until most of the juices have evaporated from the pan but they're still on the juicier side and not completely shrunk down yet.10.5 oz mushrooms
- Add the spices in (with a little extra oil if the pan feels dry at this point) and continue to saute until the mushrooms are well browned and starting to crisp up a little. At this point, remove from the heat and set aside.1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1.5 teaspoons dried sage, 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- Set the rigatoni boiling according to package instructions.(You can do this towards the end of the mushroom cooking time if you wish, to make this come together more quickly and avoid the mushrooms sitting out for too long, depending on your tolerance for multi-tasking!)9 oz dried rigatoni pasta
- While the pasta cooks, make the sauce. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook the shallots until soft. Add the garlic and mix through, then add the tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste for a few minutes until it's darkening in color and very rich and oily.2 shallots, 3 cloves garlic, 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- Now add the lemon zest to the pan and give it a quick stir. Grab 1/2 a cup (120ml) of pasta cooking water out of the pan that the rigatoni is cooking in and whisk it through the sauce until it's smooth.1/2 lemon
- Add the cheese and cream, stir through until the cheese is melted. Turn off the heat, then mix the basil and lemon juice through. Cover and set aside until the pasta is cooked.1/2 bunch fresh basil, 1/2 cup double (heavy) cream, 1/2 cup pecorino, parmesan or Italian hard cheese, 1/2 lemon
- Put it all together! Once the rigatoni is cooked al dente, drain it (but first reserve a little bit of cooking water – you might need more) and mix it through the sauce. Add the mushrooms and mix through. Assess the texture – if the sauce is too thick you can add some more pasta cooking water as needed to loosen it up.
- Serve, with additional cheese for topping and lemon wedges for squeezing if you wish.